Midway through his trial last year in Delaware County Common Pleas Court on three
felonious-assault charges, a judge
threw
out the case, ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence that Stillwagon had shot anyone in the
head — police alleged the other driver had been grazed — or had done anything wrong.

Now, Stillwagon is suing the city of Delaware, some of its officers and the man who he says
engaged him in a 14-mile-game of cat-and-mouse on rural highways through Delaware County on Sept.
30, 2012.

Stillwagon, 65, filed a civil-rights lawsuit yesterday in federal court in Columbus on the
grounds of false arrest, malicious prosecution, conspiracy, defamation and other claims.

He said he wants a public apology, compensation for nearly $500,000 he has spent on the case and
a change in police policy so this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“They lied,” an emotional Stillwagon said about the police yesterday. “And they can do it to
you.”

Stillwagon, who is a two-time All-American as part of the 1968 national championship team at
Ohio State, said he’s been hurt that fans now think he’s crazy.

“Buckeye Nation killed me,” he said. “All the Buckeye fans telling me I hit too many people and
I should be put in jail and they should throw away the key.”

Named in the lawsuit are the city itself; detective Benjamin Segaard, officer Adam Willauer,
Detective Sgt. Jonathan Radabaugh and former detective Patrick Gerke, all of the Delaware Police
Department; and Richard Mattingly, the man involved.

Lee Yoakum, spokesman for the city of Delaware, said officials had no comment on the
lawsuit.

Stillwagon’s attorney, James McNamara, said that Mattingly — who later admitted he was drunk —
randomly targeted Stillwagon that day, followed him out of a gas station on Rt. 42 and drove
aggressively through Delaware County for miles.

As the two turned into a parking lot on William Street in Delaware, Stillwagon fired his Glock
handgun at the truck.

Once Mattingly, 43 and of the Dayton area, was out of the truck, Stillwagon hit him with the
butt of his gun and it went off. Police said at the time that Mattingly was grazed in the head, but
a police report indicates that Mattingly left the hospital before a diagnosis could be made as to
what caused the wound.

“There was no road rage,” McNamara said.

He said the immunity that often shields cities and police officers from lawsuits isn’t
applicable because a necessary standard in immunity is that any reasonable officer wouldn’t have
known that the action taken was wrong.

In this case, McNamara said, the lawsuit accuses the officers of destroying evidence, coercing
people into changing their stories and fabricating the whole thing to make Stillwagon look as if he
had had a breakdown.